Club

Sports Parents Asking Tough Questions: Are They Troublemakers?

This past weekend,  the Hey Coach Tony show on a local Connecticut radio station devoted an entire hour to discussing one of MomsTeam's most popular  articles: the one listing questions to ask youth sports coaches at the pre-season meeting with parents. 

In case you don't know about Coach Tony, he is what I would call a "guy's guy": a tough-talking "shock jock"-type of radio host who tends to shoot from the hip, and with a reputation for disdaining political correctness and for using outdated terms for people he doesn't like (I cringed while listening to an earlier show when he used the word "retarded" and "retard' more than a dozen times to describe a person he did not care for). 

This past weekend,  the Hey Coach Tony show on ESPN Radio devoted an entire hour to discussing one of MomsTeam's most popular  articles: the one listing questions for parents to ask at a pre-season meeting.  Particularly instructive was the way he chose to end his show: with an email from a listener saying that parents who ask questions will be labeled as troublemakers.

Missing Gate Receipts A Reminder of Need for Oversight Of Youth Sports Organizations

It seems as if a week doesn't go by these days without a story coming across my desk about money being embezzled from the coffers of local sports teams or lack oversight by a board of directors.

On Friday, it was the case of $4,176 in gate receipts that mysteriously disappeared after a September 2011 high school football game in Huber Heights, Ohio.  Hundred dollar bills

It seems as if a week doesn't go by these days without a story coming across my desk about money being embezzled from the coffers of local sports teams or lack oversight by a board of directors. The latest is the case of $4,176 in gate receipts that mysteriously disappeared after a September 2010 high school football game in Huber Heights, Ohio. 

Politics: Constant Concern for Sports Parents

Brooke de Lench says politics in youth and school sports are always
going to be with us, and were one of the reasons she started MomsTeam.

Youth Sports Politics: Adults Feud, Children Suffer

An article in the Boston Globe, last year,  titled  "Taking the ‘little' out of Little League" reminds us not only about what is wrong in today's youth sports, but how needed reform can occur. 

I wrote this blog in 2010 but the issue continues to come up, questions are asked and think this may help. 

Accounting and Financial Disclosure in Youth Sports: Questions from Parents

Fully disclosing the finances of a youth sports organization is the sign of a well-run club, but unfortunately, parents have more questions than they are provided answers.

Reforming Youth Sports: Community, Grass-Roots Parent Activism Needed

Because parents come and go and because change at the national level is unlikely, reforming youth sports is most likely to occur at the grass roots, community level. It is there that concerned parents can make youth sports as much about having fun as about winning, make sports safer, and give every child a chance to play.

Youth Sports Organizations: Six Ways To Increase Accountability, Transparency

Youth sports have become big business, bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees every year. Yet most operate with virtually no oversight. Here's how to hold them accountable.

All-Star Team Selection Process: A Better, Fairer Way?

Ever wonder how it was that all the coaches' sons or daughters are so much more "talented" than the other kids that they get to continue playing all summer, sharpening their skills, getting the advantage of playing three, four, even five times a week under the lights or in the hot summer sun, while other kids, eager to play, stand on the outside looking in, already stigmatized by having been deemed "not good enough" to play.

Mission Statements: Important in Youth Sports Programs

Many youth sport parents have witnessed inappropriate behavior on the part of players, coaches and other parents at practices and during games. When they do, they may scratch their heads and think to themselves "I didn't think that we acted this way in our program." The problem is that, all too often, the behavioral guidelines for the program haven't been clearly spelled out in advance.

The Team Charter - Blueprint for a Hassle-Free Season

Picture this: the exhilaration of a new season; spotless uniforms, equipment just out of the box, clipboards jammed with fresh paper...boundless enthusiasm and cooperation. It's the euphoric honeymoon phase of youth sports.

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